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Your Keys Need an Upgrade

Megan Kilpatrick | December 20, 2018

If you've ever lost your keys you're far from alone. More than 20 million keys get lost every year in the United States.

That's the problem with keys. They're little lumps of metal. Whoever has one has access to whatever's locked up.

And you can never be sure exactly who who might have one.

Who has keys to your door?

Keys disappear every day. Some are lost. Some are stolen. Some are borrowed and never returned. You don't know who has copies.

Bosses give their employees keys, but people average about 10 or 15 job changes in their career. It's estimated that 42 million people will leave their jobs in 2018 alone.

That one employee who always worked late and had weird friends. It didn't work out, but... What about the cleaning crew we fired last year, do they still have a key?

Now, multiply any of those job-change figures by $30 to $120. That's what it costs to pay a locksmith to rekey a lock. That's why people every year spend $2.4 billion (that's the "B" billion) on rekeying.

That's great for locksmiths, not so great for the rest of us.

Follow the numbers

Let's say ACME Widget Co. has 500 employees, and 15 of them lose one key a year (that’s 3%). ACME has 4 exterior doors and 6 limited-access interior doors. If the company rekeys the locks every time it’s discovered that a key has drifted out of the right hands, at a cost of $100/lock, their annual rekeying expense is $15,000! That doesn't even count the time, hassle and lost productivity. And if a criminal gets one of those lost keys to break in, well it gets a lot worse.

A lock that's as smart as your phone

Wooden keys were invented about 4,000 years ago. Romans updated them by making them from metal. Think about it — in one pocket you have an ancient technology. In the other one is supercomputer called a smartphone. Which one do you want protecting your home or business?

So, what's the alternative? Smart locks. Yes. Like your phone.

Smart locks are high-tech. They use the cloud. But the advantages to smart locks are simple. They're safer and they do more.

You can track who's coming in and out of your business or properties. When someone leaves their job, you don't have to track down their keys. With our software, you can grant or deny access with a few taps on your laptop or smartphone.

You can let guests into a property even if you're not there in person. No more keys left under the mat. When the construction guys are done, delete their code.

And, unlike keys, you'll know exactly who is coming and going, and when. You can get a message every time someone comes in, and there's an electronic record of all activity.

So, get an upgrade from the key. You can't lose the cloud. For now, if you can’t find your keys, check under the couch cushions.